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Shoulder Dislocation (Hyperlaxity)

So about a year now i've been experiencing frequent dislocation to my racket arm. At first i thought it was due to improper technique. So i tried to be more careful with my swing by learning proper method of swinging the racket( having angles between joint and using proper pronation technique) . But still the dislocation occurs.

What i did was i went to a professional consultant . He told me to get proper rest and do some strengthening. What i did was rest about 5 month and did some muscle building to my racket arm. So the very first day i went back to court it dislocated again. I was really frustrated and with that condition i continued to play for months. So about 4 months later i had the most serious and painful dislocation ever i couldn't move my arm at all for few minutes. My arm was at pronated stage at that time. My general reaction was . The feeling of my arm came back 20mins later but still it hurt like madness.

After that i drove back to find a doctor (this was a different doctor) he told me that my shoulder was loose and made assumption that my capsule was loose. He did ask me to do few tasks. Like touching the floor , bending my finger and finally came up with the conclusion that i have hyperlaxity(loose ligaments) and suggested to do surgery because of my condition the reccurent rate is 99%. He told me that my condition will only get worse over time and the surgery is costly

I am 20 btw... should i do the surgery or will it get better as i grow older?

I partly dislocated my right shoulder shoulder (did not get stuck in dislocated position, just slide out then back in) back in 2001 while doing tilted bench press. Basically I pushed out the shoulder too far. I thought my arm would just fall off, but I didn't want to get the weights in my face so managed to put up the weights on the stand. That was also the last time I visited the gym. Always have a friend helping you out when doing free weights!

I had problems sleeping on the shoulder for 1 year, so only slept on the other side. Then in 2003 I had gained the courage to try beach volleyball. One smash then no more beach volley that summer, heard some weird sound from shoulder (I would say it sounds like some insect squeek), and couldn't sleep on the bad shoulder side (right side) for 1 month.

Started playing leisure badminton in 2007 (doubles) and worked quite well. Always a bit cautious when hitting with arm in up/back position (hitting back to base with shuttle behind you). Sometimes heard that weird insect sound from shoulder though. After my shoulder injury I always had most trouble when extending the arm is a bit behind me, 60 degrees angle from the head. Just holding the arm in that position felt very uncomfortable, like it could pop any second.

Did go for some TCM for my neck and shoulder and my neck the TCM doc improved, but for the shoulder he just concluded that I needed surgery as my problem was the tendons.

Went to see "normal" doc last year (2010) because of neck pain. Also told doc about my shoulder. Did x-ray of neck and shoulder. Nothing unusual. Then did a MRI-scan of shoulder (cost me 1200 SGD) and doc concluded I had a quite big tear. Went for key hole surgery in Dec last year (15k SGD, luckily my company insurance covered it) and after 1 month hospitalization leave and another 4 months or rehabilitation (physiotherapy) I was back on the court.

Must say I feel much more confident/stable when holding the arm in my troublesome position. The doc tightened my tendons and said that before surgery I would have 85% chance of dislocation, while after surgery down to 15%, where 0% would be a shoulder exposed to no injury at all.

All was good for a month but then I bought a VT80 and started to smash more (been playing with NS8000). Heard like clicking sound from front top side of shoulder when rotating the arm like one does when doing a normal shot (arm bent 90 degrees and rotate hand from pointing upwards to pointing forward). This was a result of excessive smashing together with my newly tightened tendons. The sound comes from when the tendon moves over the edge of the shoulder bone. Told my physiotherapist about this and he told me to like keep my shoulder blade into the socket as much as possible while playing and gave me a couple of strengthening exercises.

Now I am actually alright with that front top side tendon but instead I got problems with my back top side tendon. Doing some other exercises for that one now and I haven't had any problems for 2 weeks.

I am still seeing my physiotherapist at least once a month and I am VERY thorough in always warming up and stretching my shoulder before a game. Before the surgery I never used to warm up. I do some exercises and also apply tiger balm (heat or actually the tiger balm neck and shoulder rub boost: http://www.tigerbalm.com/sg/range/5/range_products/10) on the shoulder before play. I read that muscles operate best at 40 degrees C, so the tiger balm heats up my shoulder.

Doc said that if one only dislocates once then one might be able to do with only physiotherapy/strengthening&nbsp;exercises, but if dislocate many times then probably need to do surgery to tighten the tendons. If you dislocate many times it is a sign that your tendons are not tight enough.

FYI I am 29 year old male. I figured I still have a couple good sports years left so I went for the surgery. If I was say 55 then maybe I would have skipped it. Although I have had some post complications I am overall very happy with the results. I feel much more confident with my shoulder now.

Thank you for sharing that with me HappyCow. Yes as of now i've agreed to surgery and this was the only option left as i now i even dislocate my shoulder during my sleeps. Doc says if go with the surgery it will take 6 months to get back to court, i;m fine by that as long the irritating problem goes away for good. My condition

Yes even in my sleep, it is due to my condition hyper mobility and also i blame my self 3 years ago for playing with improper technique and not doing warm ups. Now that i've learned that the hard way.So for any of you guys playing badminton please do your warm ups and learn the proper technique. And thanks guys i hope i can get back to the court without worrying about that problem. i really do miss the sound of the shuttle.

I hope for a smooth operation and speedy recovery. You will need to do a lot of physiotherapy and stretching, but it will be worth all the effort.

i just came back from surgery and boy it really hurt like heck, never have i felt this kind of pain. The surgery was done open. The doc said the head of the capsule is permanently out in two direction(up an down). He tied the capsule in both direction and installed screw as shock absorbers so dislocation never happens again and the capsule doesn't move out of its place. So the doc said rest 4-6 weeks is crucial and later on phisio is necessary to get back the arm strength.

So four months has been passed since my operation so i thought i give an update. Every day was slow without badminton for some reason. I had been doing physio therapy now twice a week and everyday stretching, cardio, and strengthening exercises . My range of motion is full now(took me a very long and painful time to achieve) but i notice that i can't pronate full anymore. I think the doc limited my external rotation and internal rotation . When i achieved at this stage my shoulder started to make clicking/crunching noises when i do certain motions but it doesn't pop anymore( i can still pop with my non racket arm). I asked my therapist about this and she said it is quite normal. So i stopped worrying about the sounds. She said i had to do resistance training(resistance bands) , so i've doing it for a month now and really improved my motion and strength further plus the clicking noises have lessen. Surgery especially on joints is never easy huhu, very tough and painful journey. But now i have been doing a lot of gym work and cardio exercises I hope when i get to court i can play to my fullest. Haha

Good to hear all is well. My range of motion is also full but in some angles I feel a bit resistance, which I did not have before surgery. My doc says that this is because they did tighten the tendons so my shoulder won't pop. For badminton it's no problem though, and I play much more using my wrist nowadays. However, I cannot sleep on my right arm due to this resistance, but I've gotten used to not doing so. Let us know how your first game goes.

Good to hear all is well. My range of motion is also full but in some angles I feel a bit resistance, which I did not have before surgery. My doc says that this is because they did tighten the tendons so my shoulder won't pop. For badminton it's no problem though, and I play much more using my wrist nowadays. However, I cannot sleep on my right arm due to this resistance, but I've gotten used to not doing so. Let us know how your first game goes.

May i ask, what kind of motion you feel the resistance? and till now are there any pain when you swing overhead?

I feel some resistance on my right side (which I did surgery on) when I lay flat on my back with my heads behind my head/neck if I try to press my elbows into the bed. If I just relax my left arms elbow is resting more easier on the bed while my right one is more like slightly elevated. If that makes sense.

No, no pain when I play badminton at all actually. I always warm up (some physiotherapy exercises and stretching) and I apply tiger balm neck and shoulder rub or tiger balm active muscle rub for some pre warmup heating. I did feel some irritation once when I smashed a lot, but I did feel the same before surgery as well. I focus more on using my wrist now instead of "throwing" the whole arm.